Free
by The Feisty Rogue
Summary: Natasha returns to Stark Tower. Post Civil War wingfic and soulmate!AU


_Post Civil War Wing!fic and Soulmate!AU — Everyone is born with wings and you gain one new feather each time something special happens between you two._

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 **Free**

Natasha loved her wings. Golden brown feathers spotted with white fitted tight against her shoulder blades. They were small, compact, and strong. She could easily pass for a sparrow, and many made that assumption until they saw her in flight, a rare occurrence.

Diving through the skies, Natasha's wings were broad-based and pointed. She was the smallest of the falcon family; a merlin. The birds themselves were fierce, energetic predators that were also used to long periods of stillness watching for prey.

She found the comparison to her liking. With a pair of knives in her hands, widows bites around her wrists, and a gun strapped to her thigh she'd never felt more alive.

The sun was beginning to set over New York City, bathing the skyline in shades of pink that secretly delighted her.

She didn't bother looking over when someone approached to join her in admiring the view, instead listening as they drew closer to the crunch of shoes on gravel.

"I've never seen you fly," Tony said.

Natasha was standing on the roof of Stark Tower, the edge of the building less than a foot before her.

"No," she agreed. She flipped the knives so that the hilts were settled in her palms, and slid them into their sheathes.

"It begs the question," Tony continued, "how did you get up here?"

Natasha quirked her lips into a smile despite herself. She turned to face him. He was wearing worn jeans and an oil stained wife beater. His mechanical wings were splayed behind him, the skeletal structure hot red with gold metal feathers. The tips of the wings glowed the same electric blue as the arc reactor had.

"Just because you haven't seen me fly doesn't me I can't," she replied. She leaped forward, her wings snapping out to allow her to glide closer. Tony didn't even flinch. She liked that about him, liked his confidence, the surety he had that either she wouldn't attack, or if she did he'd be able to take her down.

On Tony's turf, with his suit only seconds away, and JARVIS' very real defensive mechanisms ever at the ready, Natasha was comfortable admitting she didn't have a chance. Certainly not at surviving the attempt, should she try it.

Luckily, Natasha had no interest in trying to hurt him.

"I've seen you do that before," he remarked, crossing his arms. His biceps bulged, years of hauling wrenches and throwing punches in a suit of armour doing nothing but good for his physique.

She checked him out and could tell he'd noticed from the appearance of his smirk. That was alright; she hadn't tried to be subtle.

"I've never seen you fly without your suit, either," Natasha said, a flippant comment she wondered if she'd regret. She hadn't come here to be cruel.

Tony's smirk widened into a grin. "Oh baby, you know you'll never."

Natasha inclined her head. She did know. Tony's suit was a prosthesis as much as it was armour. Without the suit his wings were just heavy, obnoxious decoration. A human's wings were built into their very bones; Tony would rip his body apart should he try to fly using them.

"I wish I had," she said quietly, allowing them both a moment of nostalgia.

From the pictures she'd seen, Tony's wings had been ink black and brilliant, some of the biggest she'd ever even heard of. He'd inherited them from his mother's side and the press had speculated on their origin, fluctuating from crow, to raven, to golden eagle.

Natasha thought they were a lammergeier's – an Old World vulture that had a wingspan of up to three meters.

Tony broke the momentary silence with a snort.

"No use dwelling," he said. "What are you doing up here, Nat?"

She looked at him properly, eying the bags beneath his eyes and the tension in his shoulders. He put on a good show, but was weary and perhaps a little wary of her as well. The thought that he might consider her a threat made her stomach churn.

"I'm here for you," she said simply, spreading her hands wide. "I wanted to see how you were."

"After stabbing me in the back?" Tony shook his head and Natasha's heart constricted. "You let them go, Nat," he said, sounding pained.

"At the time, with the information that I was privy to, it was the right decision," Natasha replied. She stepped forward, curling her wings right against her back once more. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry, Tony. I do not regret making that decision, but I regret the consequences bitterly."

"You're supposed to be my soulmate," Tony whispered. He glanced up, eyes flashing. "Doesn't that mean you should stand by me whatever my choices are?"

Natasha let silence fall between them. She thought about his question, even as a grimace crossed Tony's face because she knew he regretted the words.

However, it was something she had taken the time to consider before. Her time spent with the Red Room as a child and then SHIELD once she'd defected meant that her morals were twisted and her sense of loyalty was questionable. If there was anyone in the world she ought to stand by, Tony was right; it should be her soulmate, and that was why she was here.

"Perhaps," she said.

Tony sighed. "No, Nat, that was wrong of me. You're your own person — I know that."

"I was just trying to find the best possible solution for us all," Natasha said. "I realise now that it was an impossible task, but I had to try."

Tony's wings whirred as her considered her.

"Will you forgive me?" Natasha asked. Tony's expression was inscrutable for a heartbeat before bitter smile crossed his face.

"Damn you, Romanov," he groused. "Of course I will."

In that moment, Natasha felt the prickly sensation of a fledgling feather beginning to grow. It was the third time in her life — the first having been upon Tony discovering her true name, the second an exchange of words after the Chitauri Invasion, honest and unguarded in their exhaustion.

Immediately, she spun, flaring her wings. She felt exposed and vulnerable but the gesture was also freeing, hopefully demonstrating to Tony that which she could not put into words.

"Is it — are you?" Tony silenced himself and she heard him step closer, felt the soft touch of his hands stroking along her scapulars before gentling tracing the primary that was growing in. She smiled, staring out at the bright lights of New York City at dusk.

"Beautiful," Tony said, sounding reverent.

"You're a good man, Tony," she said. She let him groom her feathers and hoped that it would be enough. Theirs was a tempestuous relationship and had always destined to be from the start.

She didn't regret a single moment of it.

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Romance Awareness Day 10 - Once you meet your soulmate, you grow wings like an angel. You gain one new feather each time something special happens between you two.

Auction Day 8 - wing!fic [1145 words = 115 coins]

Word Count: 1145


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